Featured The Key to the KJV-Only Conundrum

Naw, he isn't that deep.

 

There is an organization of men ousted, according to a reliable source, from the DBS called the "King James Bible Research Council." In an article by somebody or other (it's not clear), it says God "gave providential direction and guidance in the preparation, translation, and publishing of the most influential Bible translation in history." But the article also claims inerrancy for the KJV.
(http://www.kjbresearchcouncil.com/Pages/Articles/Preservation.htm)

Once again, they say the preservation of the Bible is providential. They also say in the article that there are no errors in the KJV. You can't say both and be consistent. Perfection in the KJV could have come only through a miracle. Providence does not provide perfection. But as usual, there is no indication of how or where the miracle occurred--meaning there was no miracle, since a miracle must be openly apparent to all.

 

His book seriously needs editing. It's kind of a hodgepodge, but that's often what you get with self-published works, especially in this field.

 

I've been informed of a correction. The men of the KJBRC were not "ousted" from the DBS but left voluntarily because of the alleged heavy-handed tactics of Dr. Waite, who has been president of the DBS since 1978. (Get it?)

 

I was thinking of his An Understandable History of the Bible, but yeah, that one too.

 

This is a trenchant observation. I would further say it hinders soul-winning and revival. Gipp is so concerned about protecting a weapon (the Bible is a sword), he's forgetting to swing it at Satan and steal souls from old Scratch.

The same is true about Peter Ruckman, Gipp's mentor. It may be that no one in the 20th century distracted people more from God's Great Commission than Ruckman. He had such potential, and could have done a great work, but instead only pastored a small church all his life.

He started a mission board, but only ever had a couple of missionaries that I know of, one in Africa and one in Japan. The one in Japan (not a bad guy) called me once to ascertain the exact nature of our new Japanese translation, to criticize rather than rejoicing that such a translation was being done.

 

Not to keep robycop from answering, but Brother Jordan, if my original Hebrew OT and Greek NT are inerrant then why do we need a translation to be inerrant also?

Jordon, I mean absolutely the best for you, but you really need to think this through more. Let me ask, at what point did the KJB become inerrant? If it is inerrant, do you agree that had to happen by a miracle? If not be a miracle, how did it happen? If by a miracle, when was it?

The miracles of the Bible are all very plain and clear to all, and thus people glorified God. Over and over, when people saw miracles of Jesus, they "glorified God" (Matt. 9:8, 15:21, Mark 2:12, Luke 5:26 and many more). So for us to glorify God because of a perfect translation, we must know when and how it happened. If we don't know that it cannot glorify God.

 

Robycop's post reminded me of something I've been thinking about lately. I just finished an academic paper on Bible translation, and as I did it I put a theological name to something I've been thinking about in connection with translation: the linguistic theory of universal grammar. This is the theory that the ability to learn a language is in the DNA of every child born.

To give a theological name for this concept, it comes under the doctrine of natural (or general) revelation. This is the teaching that all of creation shows forth God (Ps. 19:1-6, Rom. 1:19-20, etc.). So, God created the different languages at the Tower of Babel, with their different verb systems, syntax, semantics, etc.

If God created all of the languages, then all of the languages can have the Word of God translated into them. God will guide the missionary translator as to how to best do this.

It follows then that since God created all of the languages, none of them is more special than any other. English is just another language, created in God's providence, so why would God choose the English language as the one to have a perfect Bible? Why not the logical German or the beautiful French or the exotic Chinese or the ubiquitous Spanish?

If the answer is that it is spoken by the most people, that is wrong. Chinese is spoken by 1.2 billion, though English is spoken by around 940 million. Spanish is spoken by half a billion.

If the answer is that English is easily learned, are you kidding me? It's a very difficult language to learn. I always get a laugh when someone says people should learn English to read the KJV. As one who has taught English to Japanese people, I have to say that is an absolutely ridiculous notion.

Jordan, you've been to Africa now. Does God love Americans more than Africans? Is English somehow a better language than African languages? Why would God choose English to have a perfect Bible instead of an African language?